What about Don Junior and Eric? What about Ivanka?
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| Eric Trump |
Biden's problem is not that what Hunter Biden did was illegal. It wasn't. It should be.
The solution is not to defend the swamp. It is to demand we drain it, pointing to Trump and his children.
Look at them!
Joe Biden has an opportunity to show he knows how to stand up to Trump. He isn't doing it yet.
Trump and his allies are making the argument that Joe Biden, via his son Hunter, is corrupt. Look at the sweetheart deal Hunter got! Fifty thousand dollars a month! And Biden is on tape linking American aid to Ukraine with firing a prosecutor. Case closed, says Trump and his allies.
Nothing the media or fact checkers can say correcting that record about that prosecutor will do Biden any good. It has the appearance of self serving cashing in on Biden's job because in fact that is exactly what it is. It was a sweetheart deal for Hunter, the Vice President's child.
It is swamp behavior. It was stupid of Biden. And yes, of course it happens all the time.
People resent nepotism, right along with high dollar fundraisers and the reality that lawmakers go hat in hand to PACs and industries seeking campaign money, get it, and then vote the interests of those groups. Lawmakers and staff are in a revolving door with industry, lobbying firms, advocacy groups, and media.
It is the way it works. It is "the swamp." Donald Trump had a good issue.
What should Biden do? Easy answer: Do what Trump would do.
Deny wrongdoing, pivot to accusations of his accuser, and criticize the swamp.Details below:
Ivanka. China just gave trademark status to Ivanka Trump for brokerage, charitable services, wedding dresses, sunglasses, child care, and most recently voting machines. Amid criticism and falling sales, Ivanka shut down her businesses, but she still retains those trademarks. She could start up her business any time or license sale of Ivanka Trump Sunglasses or Voting Machines to third parties any time. Cah-ching.
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| Click: Ivanka |
Eric and Don Junior. There is open conflict of interest with the Trump hotels, particularly with Air Force stops in Scotland and the DC International Hotel. While President Trump negotiates trade and defense policy with foreign governments, their people are getting Trump goodwill points checking into the Trump International. The least expensive room for this coming Monday night is $945, and that includes the Expedia discount. The one bedroom suite is $1,967. They rent rooms by the dozen.
Yet the GSA lease for the DC hotel specifically reads: that no "elected official of the Government of the United States ... shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom[.]" So how is it Trump still operates it??? The Trump-led GSA decided the hotel lease had been turned over to a Trump Trust--not Trump personally--a Trust run by the Trump children.
It is legal.
The problem with corruption in America is not what is illegal. It is how much is legal.
Biden has the opportunity here to say something like this:
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| Make it a Democratic issue |
"What Hunter Biden did is perfectly legal, and Donald Trump is just out to stop people from looking at his flagrant cashing, using his children as stand ins. Ivanka Trump gets a Chinese trademark on "voting machines" worth millions of dollars. Donald Junior and Eric are sham stand ins while the Trump family cashes in on foreign delegations buying Trump-goodwill-points" by paying inflated Trump prices, leased to the Trump children. Ivanka Trump gets a Chinese trademark on "voting machines" worth millions of dollars. That's right, Ivanka Trump "voting machines." Isn't that curious?
Donald Trump is cashing in on the swamp, and using his children to do it.
I propose including immediate family members in the ethics rule that would require an ethics review board approval of any employment by a majority foreign owned entities and include emoluments rules on things like trademarks to include spouses and children. That would have stopped Hunter--who long ago left a position in Ukraine--and it would stop Eric and Don Junior and Ivanka from doing what they are doing right now. As president I will sign that bill."
Something like that.
3 comments:
Nepotism is an all-American value. Family businesses are a wholesome tradition, including the stereotype of the slacker son in the corner office. When public officials do it, it becomes politicized and the finger pointing starts...and the hypocrisy. Politicians cashing in is ignored ("they all do it") and is a side effect of campaign finance corruption, and lousy term limit laws, never mind the declining quality of those seeking office, and the absence of ethics enforcement unless it's a sex scandal.
We don't know what Hunter was up to in Ukraine, but our gut feeling is that he shouldn't have been there. The fundamental question is was he there because of his last name. I, and most other Progressives I suspect, am willing to accept it was nothing more than blatant opportunism, not illegal but creepy, and counter to stated values. What I don't understand is how the Biden campaign didn't see it as a liability, maybe even a disqualifier.
If we accept the premise that Trump ran for president for personal financial gain all his actions make perfect sense. In fact, it's the only logical answer.
I want everything on the table: Trump, his kids, and the Bidens.
Hmmm...kind of matches Jared Kushner's sugar daddies in Qatar: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/02/qatar-666-5th-ave-jared-kushner
Elite Democrats v. Elite Republicans...which swamp critters will win? Stay tuned to mainstream media and get your daily fix. Root for the laundry!
Or "blow up" the system (as mainstream likes to say Bernie will do) and return us to something as radical as the Eisenhower years.
Andy Seles
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